Update: Informal night-shift study

It’s been 4 weeks since I wrote an article about an informal study into working night shifts and the effects it would have on the body. Unfortunately, I only did a fraction of the time (the job was completed a lot quicker than anticipated).

However, I can report on the time I did do. This was my action plan timetable so to speak:

8am – 10am

10am- 12pm

12pm-2pm

2pm-4pm

4pm- 5pm

5pm- 6pm

6pm- 7pm

7pm – 8pm

8pm – 8am

SLEEP

SLEEP

SLEEP

GYM

FOOD

FT

FT

FT

WORK

GYM

FT

FT /SLEEP

SLEEP

SLEEP

SLEEP

SLEEP

SLEEP

WORK

This is what my week actually looked like:

8am – 10am

10am- 12pm

12pm-2pm

2pm-4pm

4pm- 5pm

5pm- 6pm

6pm- 7pm

7pm – 8pm

8pm – 8am

SLEEP

SLEEP

SLEEP

GYM

FOOD

SLEEP

SLEEP

FT

WORK

My body completely shut down on me. No matter how much sleep I got I couldn’t complete my exercises properly. I found myself sleeping when I came home in the morning and again in the early evening to ensure I wouldn’t crash through the night. Surprisingly, staying up through the night wasn’t too difficult, but my days were completely written off.

The human body has evolved to release anabolic hormones during sleep at night. Your body naturally begins to feel tired when the sun goes down, and this is no coincidence. As soon as your head touches the pillow, the pathways in your autonomic nervous system (the part of your nervous system that does things without you having to think about it, e.g. digesting food) associated with ‘rest and digest’ are stimulated, and hormones like testosterone are released throughout the night as you sleep.

While we might balance out the sleep numbers on a night shift, it’s just not the same as getting your eight hours at night and being active throughout the day, as I found out.